Your Crooked Sleep Beside Me
by The One And Only Lobster
Summary: One-shot. Ty Lee's place has always been beside Azula. Ty Lee/Azula.


**Fandom: **Avatar: the Last Airbender**  
Rating:** G  
**Spoilers:** None  
**Character/Pairing:** Ty Lee, Azula, Ursa, Ty Lee/Azula  
**Author's Note:** I'm pretty much ignoring the existence of the comics. And I would say they are five in the first vignette, and at least nineteen in the second.  
**Warnings:** Just that Azula was not always treated so well by her mother in an emotional sense, and that later she still has some ongoing mental health issues you know, I would assume for the rest of her life.  
**Summary:** Ty Lee's place has always been beside Azula.

* * *

_I loved your crooked sleep beside me and never dreamed afraid.  
- Sandra Cisneros_

…

Your Crooked Sleep Beside Me

Ty Lee both loves and dreads the times when Azula tells her she wants her to sleep over. It's always so much fun until it's time to go to bed. They get to run around and play and bug Zuko and eat sweets. It's so easy to get caught up in the fun - but then suddenly it's bedtime.

Bedtime itself isn't even so bad, Ty Lee thinks. It's what comes after bedtime. Tonight is going to be no different, probably.

They are running around the room, jumping from pillow to pillow strewn across the floor, pretending that it's lava, then jumping on the bed to see if they can hit the canopy with their heads, when Ursa comes in.

"All right, you two," she says indulgently, "it's time for bed. No more of this koala-monkey business."

Azula stops jumping, lands sitting on her bottom, suddenly serious. "We get a story before bed."

"Of course you do," Ursa says. "Let's see, though, I think you picked last time. Ty Lee, which one do you want?"

Ty Lee stands there in her nightgown considering. What is a good story, a _happy_ story, one that she likes but Azula would also like to hear? She decides.

"The one about the princess who slays the dragon and gets his knowledge and she's so beautiful and smart and -"

"Okay!" Ursa laughs. "It sounds like you know that story better than the book! But I'll go get it."

Ty Lee can tell by Azula's expression that she's made a good choice. She sits beside the princess happily. Maybe tonight will be different. Maybe everything will be okay.

Ursa returns and tucks them in snugly beside each other. Ty Lee loves how she reads the story, because Ursa always does the voices so well - the princess, brave and heroic; the dragon, mean and growly. Her tone is somehow soothing as well, and by the end of it Ty Lee's eyelids are heavy. Everything is so nice and warm. Yes, tonight will be different, she reassures herself.

Ursa gives them each a hug and a kiss and extinguishes the lamps. "Sweet dreams, girls," she says, as she closes the door.

For several minutes all is quiet and Ty Lee is sure her plan has worked, that she chose the right story. But then she feels the faint shaking beside her that means it hasn't, and her stomach drops. She is wide awake now, and she no longer feels nice and warm. When she looks over at Azula, she can see her eyes are shut not in sleep, but screwed tight, her face all scrunched up, and even though she isn't making a sound, several tears have already made their way down her face.

Now Ty Lee wants to cry, too. Why did this always, _always_ happen? Why did Azula always start crying every time she spent the night? It's the only time she's ever seen Azula cry. _Why does she want me to come over if I make her cry?_

She's never asked Azula why, she's just always pretended to be asleep. Eventually she actually does fall asleep, but never before Azula. It still takes hours. In the morning they never talk about it. What would happen if she did? What would happen if she said something right now? Would Azula get mad at her? Would she stop being her friend? Would something even worse happen?

Before she has a chance to think too hard about all the ways Azula might react, Ty Lee finds her courage. "What's wrong?" she whispers.

All that happens is that Azula rolls over on her side, away from Ty Lee, curled into a ball. Just when Ty Lee has decided that's it, Azula won't tell her, a small voice that sounds nothing at all like her friend says, "She never acts like that when you're not here."

Ty Lee has no idea what Azula is talking about. "Who?"

"My mother. She doesn't care when you're not here. She just puts me to bed and then leaves, or tells me to go to bed. But guess how she treats Zuko?"

"Oh," is the only thing Ty Lee can think of to say to that. Even with six sisters, at least one of her parents manages to put her to bed properly each night. It probably helps that some of them are too old now for bedtime stories and being tucked in, but still.

Azula remains curled into a ball, and Ty Lee can tell that she hasn't stopped crying, either. So she curls up against her, not saying anything, just pressing as much of her body against the princess as she can. Soon Azula stops crying and they both fall asleep.

In the morning Ty Lee knows better than to ever speak of what has passed between them, but after that Ty Lee herself starts asking, often, to spend the night. Each time, as soon as Ursa shuts the door, she curls up against Azula, and neither girl dreads the night anymore.

..

It is years after the war before Azula is allowed home. Many of the Kyoshi Warriors have been assigned as Palace bodyguards, so it's only natural Ty Lee is selected to be her special guard and keeper. They are given adjoining bedrooms.

The very first night, Ty Lee wakes up to a hand frantically shaking her. The princess stands over her in the moonlight, eyes darting from side to side, hands twisting the sleeves of her pajamas.

"What is it, Azula?" she asks groggily.

"Come sleep with me," Azula says, and while it's a demand, there is something different about the tone. Azula has changed. It takes a second before Ty Lee understands what the difference is: Azula realizes there is the possibility Ty Lee might refuse her request, that anybody might refuse any of her requests now, and she accepts that fact, or is at least resigned to it.

Ty Lee doesn't refuse. She just gets out of bed and follows the princess to her room, where she climbs after her between the silken sheets. She falls into her old place, curled against Azula's back, as though she never left, as though this was where she was always meant to be.

She puts her arm over Azula, taking the princess's hand in her own and stroking it with her thumb until Azula relaxes and her breathing slows and she finally falls asleep.

"Always," she says.


End file.
